Summary
Time travel has been a staple ofStar Treksince the franchise began, and several modernStar Trekcharacters have journeyed through time. SinceStar Trek: The Original Series,everyTrekserieshas featured stories involving time travel. Whether Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew were going back in time to save the whales or Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) was being visited by an agent from the future,time travel has long been one ofStar Trek’smost successful tropes.It’s no surprise, then, that modernStar Trekwould dip back into the time travel well.
In 2017,Star Trek: Discoveryushered in a new era ofStar Trektelevision showsin the modern world of streaming.The adventures of Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery introduced new fans to the world ofStar Trekand led to numerous spin-offs.Discoveryand its first spin-off,Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,began as prequels toTOS,exploring characters fans have already come to love.Star Trek: Picard,too, brought back some familiar faces, continuing the story of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). These shows, along withStar Trek: Lower DecksandStar Trek: Prodigy, have made the modern era feel like a trueStar Trekrenaissance.
20 Best Star Trek Time Travel Episodes & Movies, Ranked
The Star Trek franchise has done a lot of time-travel stories in various shows and movies, and some have been undeniably better than others.
7Captain Michael Burnham & The USS Discovery Crew
Star Trek: Discovery
With the introduction of Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike and Ethan Peck as Lt. Spock,Star Trek: Discoveryseason 2 took the show in a new direction. As Michael Burnham and her crew explore the mysterious Red Bursts and thefigure known as the Red Angel,they find themselves in a fight to save the galaxy from an artificial intelligence system called Control.
Captain Burnham eventually realizes that the only way to save the universe is to take the USS Discovery into the far future.Discoveryseason 2 ends with Burnham donning the Red Angel suit and leading Discovery into the 32nd century.No longer beholden to establishedStar Trekcanon,Discoveryfound new life in the far future, as Burnham and her crew helped rebuild the devastated United Federation of Planets.
Soon after arriving in the 32nd century, Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) began experiencing negative side effects due to being displaced in time and dimension. Near the end ofDiscoveryseason 3, she was sent back in time and her story will continue in the upcomingStar Trek: Section 31film.
6Admiral Jean-Luc Picard & His Motley Crew
Star Trek: Picard Season 2
Star Trek: Picardseason 2 sent Admiral Jean-Luc Picard and his friends back to the 21st century to prevent a dystopian alternate future. In an attempt to force Jean-Luc to confront his childhood trauma,Q (John de Lancie) strands Picard and his friends in a dark alternate future.With some help fromthe Borg Queen (Annie Wersching), Picard and his motley crew then travel back to 2024, where they must restore the proper future.
10 Good Things In Star Trek: Picard Season 2
Q’s plans for Jean-Luc in Picard season 2 may have been illogical, but they don’t detract from some great Star Trek moments for the La Sirena crew.
As Picard, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera), and Agnes Jurarti (Alison Pill) work to repair the past, Jean-Luc confronts suppressed memories from his childhood. Although the Borg Queen and disillusioned scientist Dr. Altan Soong (Brent Spiner) attempt to interfere,Picard and his friends are ultimately successful in restoring the timeline.While Rios elects to remain in the past, the rest of the crew returns to the 24th century.
5Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh & Captain James T. Kirk (Alternate Timeline)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3 - “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”
With her tragic past and connection to notorious tyrant Khan Noonien-Singh (Ricardo Montalban), La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) has proven to be one ofStar Trek: Strange New Worlds’best new characters.In “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” La’an’s story gets another tragic chapter as she travels back in timewith an alternate universe version of Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley).
As La’an and Kirk work to restore the proper future, they grow close to one another and La’an finally begins to open up. They eventually confront an undercoverRomulan operative named Sera (Adelaide Kane), who has a mission to alter the timeline by slowing human progress.Although La’an manages to thwart Sera’s plan, Kirk is killed in the process.La’an then travels back to her own time, where she reaches out to a version of Kirk who has never met her.
4Ensigns Bradward Boimler & Beckett Mariner
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 7 - “Those Old Scientists”
In one of modernStar Trek’smost fun episodes,Ensigns Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) ofStar Trek: Lower Deckstravel through a portaland emerge on the USS Enterprise of Captain Pike. Boimler arrives first and, although he keeps reminding himself not to disrupt the timeline, he cannot help but be excited about meeting his heroes. Before Captain Pike and his crew can find a way to send Boimler back to his time, an Orion ship arrives and steals the portal.
The Enterprise manages to retrieve the portal, but Mariner emerges from it before Burnham can step through.Boimler and Mariner help Pike and his crew see the Orions in a different lightbefore they finally manage to return to their own time. Not only is theStrange New Worlds/Lower DeckscrossoverStar Trekat its best, but it is also a celebration of the franchise as a whole.
3USS Protostar Crew
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2
Star Trek: Prodigyseason 1introduced Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and his ragtag crew aboard the USS Protostar, as they traveled the galaxy guided by a hologram of Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). After they helped prevent the Living Construct from destroying Starfleet,Dal and his friends began preparing to join Starfleet Academy.At the beginning ofProdigyseason 2, Admiral Kathryn Janeway recruits the former Protostar crew for a mission aboard the USS Voyager-A.
Prodigyseason 2 sees Janeway set out to follow Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) through a wormhole and bring him home. Before Janeway can mount her rescue, however,Dal, Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), Zero (Angus Imrie), and Maj’el (Michaela Dietz) inadvertently travel through the wormhole into the future.Once there, they encounter Chakotay and accidentally disrupt the original timeline. Dal and his friends then convert their ship into a time machine and travel back to their time, where they now have to restore the timeline they disrupted.
Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Ending & Shocking Season 3 Set Up Explained
Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 brings the time travel saga of the USS Protostar full circle. Here’s what happened and what it all means for season 3.
2Captain Chakotay & Adreek-Hu
Star Trek: Prodigy
After the USS Voyager returned from the Delta Quadrant, Chakotay was promoted to captain and eventually took over command of the USS Protostar.During his first mission, the Protostar encountered a temporal anomaly and ended up on the planet Solum about fifty years in an alternate future.Chakotay and his First Officer, Adreek-Hu (Tommie Earl Jenkins), were captured by the Vau N’Akat and learned that their captors had placed a weapon known as the Living Construct on the Protostar.
Chakotay then sent the unmanned Protostar back in time, hoping that the weapon would never fall into the wrong hands. When Dal and his friends disrupted the timeline,Chakotay and Adreek traveled with the Protostar into the past, marooning themselves on the planet Ysida.With help fromTraveler Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), Dal and his friends find Chakotay ten years later, and help restore the proper timeline.
1The Diviner (Ilthuran) & The Vindicator (Asencia)
When the USS Protostar appeared over their planet, the Vau N’Akat saw it as an opportunity to restore their species and get back at the Federation. The Federation had initiated First Contact with Solum fifty years before, and the planet had fallen into decades of civil war.The Vau N’Akat saw the Protostar as their only hope,but they lost that chance when Chakotay sent the ship back into the past unmanned.
The Vau N’Akat then formed The Order and sent several soldiers into the past in the hope that one of them would find the Protostar and save Solum.The Diviner (John Noble)and Ascencia (Jameela Jamil) were both members of The Order who successfully made it back to the past. Having narrowed the location of the Protostar down to Tars Lamora, the Diviner began operating a prison colony there to search for the ship.
Ascencia, meanwhile, infiltrated Starfleet and landed a position aboard the USS Dauntless under Admiral Janeway.Later, Ascencia killed the Diviner when his love for his daughter, Gwyndala (Ella Purnell), caused him to question his mission.Gwyndala later reconnected with Ilthuran, the younger version of her father, and the younger version of Ascenia also aided the Protostar crew. In its second season finale,Star Trek: Prodigybrought its story full circle, as the USS Protostar travels back to the past to close the loop, successfully restoring the properStar Trektimeline.
